In March, 2022, Rhobin Courtright would like to know what messages my books give to my readers.

Terribly sorry, but it’s affliction of mine. I cannot help it. I cannot have the word “message” in my mind without “massage,” and vice versa.

Wait a minute. Actually, it is quite apt. To me, “message” suggests a strident call, a soapbox delivery of a sermon. If anyone preaches at me, I run the other way, so why should I inflict it on innocent people whose only crime is to read one of my books?

“Massage,” however, is the gentle treatment of a painful spot on the body; soothing, healing, putting things to rights.

Let’s do that instead.

I have said it before, you cannot write even a shopping list without exposing your value system. A 100 word story (yes, I have several) will certainly do so. Therefore, everything we write is guaranteed to massage our message. No need to preach: if we write to entertain, we’ll be doing the massaging automatically.

(Now, don’t get me going on “enter tain.” Tain is a place of… No. That’s for another time.)

As you can see, I have already revealed one of my messages:

What’s that got to do with global culture? Nothing, but it’s not the only thing I am about. Another value is:

This colours everything I write, including every one of my published books, even practical self-help like Woodworking for Idiots like me.

My last four novels to be published are:

• Maraglindi: Guardian Spirit
• Sleeper, Awake
• Hit and Run
• Ascending Spiral

Maraglindi is actually a Jesus/Buddha person who has been assigned to us little humans as a guide, and so needs to learn what it is to be human. You can get a sense of how this empowers the story by reading the latest, very perceptive review by Michael Muntisov.

The massage toward enlightenment is less visible in Sleeper, Awake, but you will find it in the way almost every person in the story grows spiritually.

Hit and Run is explicitly about the power of unconditional love to reform even the worst criminal, but certainly not by preaching. Rather, it is a matter of conflict and pain and despair leading to hope and cooperation and decency, thanks to the untiring work of an old lady who considers herself to be all too faulty, but is in my opinion in fact an enlightened spirit. So, perhaps there is hope for you and me? Well, certainly for you…

And finally, Ascending Spiral shows how one person can advance and backslide, commit terrible acts and benefit from them, but overall, in life after life, grow.

Next message to massage:

The job specification is that everything I do, including my writing, is intended to work for a survivable future for the youngsters of the present, and one worth surviving in.

Believe it or not, this is actually the same message as the previous one. Let me unpack it. (Again, doesn’t that lead to amusing images?)

Currently, no, we do not have a survivable future. Today’s youngsters are “Generation Z,” and if business as usual continues, that label is prophetic. Going back to the invention of agriculture and animal husbandry some 10,000 years ago, every generation has stolen from its future. This is it: there is no more future to steal from. We need to change the global culture (got to it!) or we’ll join the dodo. According to best predictions, we still have a chance of saving a future, but it is a SMALL window.

I won’t go into how we are unravelling the web of life, but it is a long list of suicidal actions. All of them are symptoms of a culture that rewards and encourages the worst in human nature: greed, fear-and-hate (which is the one monster), short term thinking. Our one hope is a miraculous transformation into a global culture of empathy, decency, cooperation, examining the long-term implications of our actions.

The second part, building a future worth surviving in, is one of empathy, decency, cooperation, examining the long-term implications of our actions.

Even if it didn’t save the world, wouldn’t it be better to live in such a society?

How to achieve it? You’ve got it. If most people realised they are apprentice enlightened spirits, we’d be there. Because, how does an apprentice learn? In two ways: By learning from a master, and by making mistakes and learning from them. Many enlightened spirits have shown us how. I am sure you can think of several examples, but I’ll only quote one. The Dalai Lama has said, “My religion is kindness. The purpose of enlightenment is to be of service.”

So, hurry up and get enlightened, and when you do, PLEASE explain to me how I can do it, too!

One way is to do acts of kindness, as His Holiness has said. You can start right now by commenting on my rave. Then, please head over to the wonderful ladies listed below, and read their no doubt more serious answers to Rhobin’s question.

Marci Baun
Rhobin Courtright
Skye Taylor
Connie Vines
Diane Bator
Helena Fairfax